Cattlemen's Capitol Concerns ~ September 13, 2007

The Cattlemen’s Capitol Concerns (CCC) is a weekly report from Washington, D.C., giving an up-to-date summary of top policy initiatives concerning the cattle industry; direct from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Please feel free to reprint in full or in part. If you’d like to include NCBA’s logo, contact us at 202-347-0228.

NCBA Offers Thoughts to U.S. Officials on Import Safety:  As part of an interagency effort to improve the safety of imports, NCBA President John Queen and NCBA Executive Director of Beef Safety Research Dr. Mandy Carr met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt in Kansas City on September 12^th. Leavitt is chairing the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety that is charged with developing an action plan containing specific short- and long-term recommendations which are to be submitted to President Bush in November.  

Johanns and Leavitt met with industry stakeholders to discuss how the U.S. import safety systems can be strengthened. In his remarks, Queen told the secretaries the U.S. Government must do the following:

- Ensure equivalency. Importing countries must meet U.S. domestic food safety standards.

- Impose criteria which are science-based in order to ensure safety and prevent trade discrimination.

- Protect animal health, as well as product and ingredient safety. Animal health is an important part of food safety. Keeping out both foreign animal diseases and products that pose a potential threat to an animal’s health or our food safety – including ingredients for feed and medicines – must be a top priority.

 - Effectively coordinate intergovernmental responsibility.  FDA, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) all play different and important roles to ensure overall import safety.  These efforts should be coordinated instead of working against each other.

“We know the safeguards and import protocols we currently have in place are working at USDA,” said Queen.  “The United States is proud to offer our consumers the safest and most reliable food supply in the world.  But we need to continually enhance and improve these existing systems, as well as be open to aggressively addressing any weaknesses.” 

USDA will host a public meeting on October 1, 2007 in Washington, D.C.  More information about the public meeting and comment period is posted at www.importsafety.gov.

NCBA Outlines Support for Peru Trade Agreement:  NCBA submitted a written statement this week to the Senate Finance Committee in support of the U.S. - Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA).  The committee held a hearing on September 11^th to review the Peru agreement which is one of many up for consideration by Congress this fall.

“We support international trade policies that aggressively pursue expanded market access for U.S. beef. Additionally, we support the enforcement of trade agreements that are based on internationally recognized standards and guidelines,” said NCBA in its statement.  “Provisions contained within the PTPA are precisely the type of market access provisions that allow U.S. beef to compete on a level playing field.”

NCBA is working with more than 40 other food and agriculture groups as part of an Ag Trade Coalition in support of the Peru, Panama and Colombia Trade Promotion Agreements.  Passage of these agreements is one of the listed priorities outlined in NCBA’s Beef Export Access Five Point Plan.

“The PTPA is one of the best negotiated free trade agreements for U.S. beef to date,” said NCBA.  “In addition to immediate duty-free access for U.S. prime and choice beef, other beef products will have duty-free access on day one of this agreement, and all tariff rate quotas will be eliminated within 12 years.  In 2003, Peru was a $6 million export market for U.S. beef, beef variety meats and beef products. This improved access could amount to roughly $15 million a year, about half the value of Peru's current total beef imports.”

Visit USDA’s Trade Resources Website:  In related news, USDA has posted information and other resources pertaining to the free trade agreements currently before Congress.  These resources include information on the benefits for trade to states and agriculture as well as news releases, transcripts and fact sheets.  Highlighted agreements include U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement and the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.  Visit USDA’s main page at www.usda.gov and click on “COLLECTION PAGE: Free Trade Agreements” or copy and paste this link into your web browser:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=fta_projects.html.

Political Volatility Impedes Movement on Trade:  NCBA and the U.S. government have worked tirelessly to reopen and expand U.S. beef export markets.  While we have seen progress, challenges still remain.  Currently, major political developments in four important markets for U.S. beef are impeding movement toward fully re-establishing beef trade within these markets.

- Japan:  After less than a year in office, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned his post on September 12^th.  Over the past year, Abe was plagued by domestic scandals and low approval ratings.  In July, his party suffered defeat in the elections of Japan's Upper House of parliament.  Four of his cabinet ministers have been forced to step down, while another minister committed suicide over a financial scandal.  Of specific concern to cattlemen is the fact that there have been five Japanese ag ministers over the past six months; with Abe’s resignation there will likely soon be a sixth ag minister.

- Russia:  Russian President Vladimir Putin announced September 12^th the dissolution of his government, and named little known Victor Zubkov as Russia’s new prime minister.  While restructuring was not unexpected, the timing – more than three months before the December 2^nd parliamentary elections – came as a surprise.  Russia’s presidential election is scheduled for March 9, 2008. 

- South Korea:  The country's current president is stepping down and an election for the new president will be held in late December. Added to these developments is a resolution from members of the Korean parliament released this week calling for an outright ban on U.S. beef imports.  This ban is also being supported by one of the candidates for President. 

- China:  Next month, China will hold its People's Party Congress and key positions within China’s political leadership will be reshuffled.  Every five years, the Communist Party convenes to complete a selection process for the new lineup of top party posts.  Shuffling of current Chinese officials who have been negotiating with the U.S. government for the past several months (or years) are likely. Resolving outstanding trade issues will have to wait until the new players are announced and firmly in place.

“From a U.S. trade standpoint, these changes in leadership are incredibly frustrating to the process of fully re-establishing beef trade,” says NCBA Chief Economist Gregg Doud.  “As soon as you get to a working point between the interested parties, one of the parties changes causing further delays in the process.”

Russian Trade Update:  Three teams of Russian inspectors are currently in the United States auditing U.S. beef processing facilities. This is the final step for getting U.S. beef and beef variety meats back into the lucrative Russian market.  If the visits go according to plan, the audits are expected to be completed later this month. NCBA’s expectation is that all U.S. beef and beef products from animals of all ages will be on its way to Russia in October.  In November 2006, Russia agreed to an import protocol that included no age or product restrictions upon the United States’ receipt of its OIE “controlled risk” status. 

In 2003, Russia was the fifth largest market for U.S. beef and beef product exports in terms of quantity, and the seventh largest in terms of value at $53 million. At present, Russia is the second largest beef importer in the world, behind the United States and ahead of Japan, and is forecast to import more than 900,000 metric tons in 2007.

Jackson Named to Key White House Post:  President George W. Bush announced September 4^th that Barry Jackson will be Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs.  Jackson will take on many of the duties of former White House advisor Karl Rove, who resigned last month. 

"Barry is truly one of the best policy minds in Washington, D.C.,” says NCBA Vice President Jay Truitt.  "Barry understands agriculture, both here and around the globe, and will serve the President well in this new role.  We congratulate him on this new assignment."

Prior to joining the Administration, Jackson served as Chief of Staff to Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Executive Director of the House Republican Conference.  He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa.

Mandatory Price Reporting:  NCBA submitted comments on September 10^th to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) regarding re-establishing the Livestock Mandatory Reporting program.  Mandatory Price Reporting (MPR) requires meat packers to report to the AMS their daily price and volume information on negotiated and non-negotiated purchases of cattle and boxed-beef sales. In addition, companies are also required to report beef exports and imports. 

MPR was reauthorized by Congress in October 2006, but USDA must issue a new regulation prior to the resumption of the program on a mandatory basis.  Most packers have been voluntarily submitting market information, and USDA has continued to publish most reports, except for imported boxed lamb cuts and slaughter cow. 

NCBA has long been a proponent of mandatory livestock price reporting and was one of the initial organizations to coordinate input from producers in order to draft the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999.  Congress’s reauthorization did not contain any changes to the cattle data collection.  In its comments, NCBA supports re-establishing the Livestock Mandatory Reporting program, but outlined specific recommendations for the AMS to implement in making the program even more useful to producers.  These include: 

1. Clarify AMS reporters’ instructions to make them more specific and consistent.
2. Report to market news readers the criteria reporters use in making reporting decisions to reflect the prevailing market conditions.
3. Audit a statistical sample of packers’ transactions to ensure the overall accuracy of the transaction data being reported.
4. Work to improve the timeliness and consistency of AMS reporters’ efforts to follow-up on audit findings.
5. Further develop AMS audit strategies to identify recurring significant problems.
6. Improve communication between AMS and the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA).

NCBA Announces Fall’s Cattlemen and Congress Days:  To help get the cattlemen’s message out on Capitol Hill, NCBA is inviting members and affiliates to participate in the fall session of Cattlemen and Congress Days.  During our summer session, visits to Capitol Hill from our nation’s cattle producers were hugely successful. 

“When members of Congress hear directly from their constituents about current issues facing our industry, it goes a long way toward accomplishing the policy goals NCBA members set for our organization,” says NCBA’s Manager of Policy Affiliate Relations Elizabeth Bostdorff.    

To set up a visit to Washington, or for more information, contact Elizabeth in NCBA’s Washington office at 202-347-0228 or ebostdorff@beef.org.

Looking for Cattlemen to “Walk a Mile”:  “Walk A Mile in My Boots” (WAMB) is recruiting cattle producers and agency employees to participate in an educational exchange to help foster understanding and build partnerships between government and industry.  Since the program’s conception, NCBA has had several members already partake in successful exchanges across the United States. 

The award-winning WAMB program was originally launched by NCBA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the summer of 2003, and has given government employees and cattle producers the opportunity to swap on-the-ground work experiences. The program now includes partnerships with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD).

Any cattle producer, NACD member, or FWS or NRCS employee can apply for the exchange program. The length of an actual exchange runs anywhere from two to ten days. During the exchange, cattle ranchers can visit local or national government offices, work on refuges or in labs, or travel to national headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Government employees have the opportunity to visit cattle operations and get hands-on experience working the cattle operation. For more information, call NCBA’s DC office at 202-347-0228 or email wamb@beef.org.

TSCRA Fall Meeting:  NCBA’s Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Colin Woodall is in Marfa, Texas for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Fall Meeting, September 12-14, 2007.  Committee meetings are scheduled for Thursday, and the General Session will meet Friday morning.  Colin addressed the group in the Joint Brand and Inspection/Legislative and Tax Committee meeting on Thursday morning.

NCBA’s Western Regions to Hold Joint Meeting: Cattlemen from across the western United States are invited to attend a joint meeting of the NCBA western regions, September 28 and 29 in Jackson Hole, Wyo. NCBA Region V includes the states of Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington and Wyoming, while Region VI is made up of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Cevin Jones, Region V policy vice president from Eden, Idaho, and Greg Moore, Region VI policy vice president from Wagon Mound, N.M., will chair the meeting.

The NCBA Region V and VI meeting is being held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Public Lands Council (PLC). The PLC is an organization of public lands ranchers throughout the West, formed by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, American Sheep Industry and Association of National Grasslands. A full meeting agenda, along with hotel and registration information, is available at www.beefusa.org, under the “NCBA Events” section.

For more details on the PLC Annual Meeting, please visit: www.thepubliclandscouncil.org/plc2/Website.pdf. More information is also available by calling NCBA at 866-BEEFUSA or NCBA Western Field Representative Dan McCarty at (406) 855-2815.

Mark Your Calendars For Annual Convention!:  The 2008 Cattle Industry Annual Convention and Trade Show will be held February 6-9 in Reno, Nevada.  The meeting will feature joint and individual meetings by NCBA, Cattlemen's Beef Promotion & Research Board, American National CattleWomen, Inc., Cattle-Fax and National Cattlemen's Foundation.

At the NCBA Trade Show, more than 250 companies will offer attendees a chance to see the latest products and services while networking with other cattle producers. In addition, many booths will feature giveaways, games and prize drawings. Whether you are looking for farm vehicles, fencing, feed supplies, animal health products or the latest in technology, you'll find it right here under one roof.

Education, information and networking are the cornerstones of Convention.  But it's not all business, there will be lots of time to kick back, relax and enjoy your mini-vacation in Reno. Bring your family along!  Additional details and schedule updates are posted at http://www.beefusa.org/convcattleindustryannualconventionandncbatradeshow.aspx.

Don't Miss NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen: This week’s edition of NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen airing September 11-15, Brett Stuart of Cattle-Fax will discuss the impact of branded beef programs on the cattle industry. This includes an explanation of how cattle qualifying for a “premium choice” grade can offer a significant return on investment.  You’ll also meet the Pennsylvania family honored as the northeast region’s Environmental Stewardship Award winner, and the Kansas family that was named the Beef Improvement Federation’s Seedstock Producer of the Year. Experts from Purina Mills will discuss feed bunk management, and Cattlemen to Cattlemen will also pay a visit to the California State Fair’s Sale of Champions.

In the program airing September, 18-22, Tim Biela, a founding member of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council (BIFSCo), discusses the many advances made by the beef industry in preventing E. coli and other pathogens from entering the beef supply; we’ll head to the Alexander Ranch in Kansas to meet the Region VII Environmental Stewardship Award winners; and some Chicago-area kids sample new beef products at the Beef and Veal Culinary Center, and provide important consumer feedback. Also, the Cattle Learning Center travels to Minnesota for a look at prevention and treatment of calf scours.     

NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen on RFD-TV provides weekly news and features for cattle producers across the country. The show airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. and is rebroadcast Wednesdays at 4:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m. All times are Eastern. Make sure YOU tune into NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen on channel RFD-TV. For more information or to check out past episodes, visit www.cattlementocattlemen.org.

Media Contact:  Karen Batra at 202-347-0228 or kbatra@beef.org.

This publication is funded by cattle producers and other industry supporters through their voluntary membership contributions to NCBA. To join the tens of thousands of cattle producers from across the U.S. in working to preserve our legacy, contact NCBA Member Services at 1-866-BEEF-USA or Membership@beef.org.